One Learns to Get the Better of Words
by The Hart and Hound
Summary: For them, there is only trying. [Moments shared in the Chants’ years of marriage. ChristopherMillie. For the 1sentence community.]


Title: One Learns to Get the Better of Words

Author: tsubaki-hana

Series: Chrestomanci

Rating: K to T

Disclaimer: Chrestomanci belongs to Diana Wynne Jones

Summary: For them, there is only trying. (Moments shared in the Chants' years of marriage. Christopher/Millie).

Notes: The sentences go in no particular order, unless it specifically builds off of the previous one.

* * *

1. Ring

"Surely you're joking," she said, looking down at her hand where the gold band was placed, his fingers laced into hers, "because I'm ungodly clumsy, and a life is a rather careless thing to lose."

* * *

2. Hero

He expected no particular fanfare from Millie when he came home these days from the other worlds (which was very unlike their newlywed days), but there is something particularly heartening about coming home to a cup of steaming tea and finding that she has already set out his night clothes.

* * *

3. Memory

Fortunately for Christopher, he was a romantic at heart and was able to recite all of his wedding vows to Millie when she was feeling particularly awful; she of course just kissed him on the cheek and told him that if he really wanted to be helpful, then he would go find her a glass of water.

* * *

4. Box

"Well, old girl," she said, lifting a pile of Millie books into a box, "we're both getting old," but it was at that moment that Christopher came into the room, a flamboyantly clad, whirling dervish of a man; "But not too old for me," he said, taking the books back out.

* * *

5. Run

She was convinced that he let her cheat when they played cricket, because every time she tried to call him on it, he bowed out of the room in an awful hurry.

* * *

6. Hurricane

Millie was completely and utterly embarrassed the first time that Christopher pointed out that she had a tendency to create unusual weather patterns near the castle when driven to any great emotion; the hail was particularly telling, he said glibly.

* * *

7. Wings

"No, no, don't go in there," Christopher said in a hurry to Janet and Julia, "because she's a right mess over running into that house finch with the car," and as though backing up the claim, a pillow was thrown from the other side of the bedroom door.

* * *

8. Cold

With an indignant squawk, Millie sat straight up in bed and told him, under no uncertain terms, that if he put his cold feet on her leg one more time, she was going to make him sleep in the parlour room until he found better footwear.

* * *

9. Red

Millie sighed, not exactly sure how to explain to Bernard why the car needed to be upholstered in velvet, but also not willing to put up with her husband and faithful passenger driver's complaints about uncomfortable seats.

* * *

10. Drink

It had taken him a while to make a decent excuse as to why he would allow Cat and Roger to have a tumbler of currant wine each, but much to his amusement and dread, none of them seemed to hold water next to Millie's irritated glare, all the while Cat and Roger were in such a good mood that they either failed to notice or ignored the glance.

* * *

11. Midnight

She woke up irritable, tired of sleeping on her back because of her pregnancy, but her mood smoothed out quickly when she found Christopher's arm twined with her own and him looking guileless in the darkness of the room.

* * *

12. Temptation

"I don't have to offer chocolate, dark secrets, or favours to get Christopher to appease me," said Millie, smiling smugly at Irene, "since I only have to offer him clothes."

* * *

13. View

Christopher always had a healthy opinion of his physique, but even he couldn't keep from being irritable when Millie affectionately called him her tall, dark, and handsome scarecrow.

* * *

14. Music

"Christopher," Millie said irritably, the morning light still very new on the bedclothes that she was insistent on not leaving, "of all the things you can do, singing is not one of them," and with that, the din in the bathroom went abruptly silent, what she suspected was a hurt silence.

* * *

15. Silk

She always kept her hands soft, even when she worked on her garden and sewing, and it was the feeling of those hands that Christopher preferred over any other.

* * *

16. Cover

"I did warn you, you know," he said, holding an umbrella over her sopping head while she stomped towards the castle, muttering that it had been such a nice day to have a walk just a couple of hours before.

* * *

17. Promise

He had always promised to come back from his missions, but the trouble with promises, Millie thought, was that whether intentionally or not, they always seemed to be broken and that was something she did not want to ever have happen.

* * *

18. Dream

"I want nothing but little girls," said Christopher, "lots of clean, well-behaved little girls," but Millie, feeling rather practical, felt that he wouldn't feel quite the same when they all became adolescents all at once with every conceivable problem that came with that.

* * *

19. Candle

Millie never needed a light to help her see around the rooms at night; Christopher's eyes always seemed to glow.

* * *

20. Talent

"And here I though you said that you had no artistic proclivities," she heard him say over her shoulder before nestling his face there, watching her paint leaves onto Julia's armoire.

* * *

21. Silence

The only truly bothersome thing about having lots of children in the castle, Christopher thought, was that with all the demands for attention from the lot of them, he couldn't get a word in edge wise with his wife.

* * *

22. Journey

"And be sure to come back," she added, hesitantly, looking at the now empty pentacle of the main hall.

* * *

23. Fire

When Millie had told him to kindle their fire, he didn't know that she meant it _literally_.

* * *

24. Strength

Millie's strength was not in her exceptional skills as an enchantress, but as a patient woman who knew that someone would need to wait at home, to bandage whatever mess that Christopher had made of himself _this_ time around.

* * *

25. Mask

"You're a right peacock, Christopher Chant," she said scoldingly, watching him pull himself together in front of a mirror, resolute in his determination to not be seen anything less than immaculate.

* * *

26. Ice

She didn't care what he said; if she fell on her bottom one more time in this infernal rink, she was going to misbehave and melt the entire surface in vengeance for her torn petticoats.

* * *

27. Fall

The first time she nearly fell down the stairs, Christopher had looked so horrified that Millie immediately wished that she didn't have just one life, if only for his sake.

* * *

28. Forgotten

Sometimes he felt as if he didn't quite fit as smoothly into his home as he might have before, as though the others were awkward with his presence, and he knew that this would be the price he paid for the security of his family.

* * *

29. Dance

"Of course you can dance, I'll show you," Christopher said, and Millie, being dragged behind him (but not wholly unwillingly), could only shake her head and wonder why the wedding march was required at all.

* * *

30. Body

There were days that Millie did not feel at all comfortable in her own skin, but then there were also days that she felt more beautiful than any other woman, because she knew that her husband loved her and thought her beautiful even when she was an insufferable grouch.

* * *

31. Sacred

Goddess or not, Christopher held no woman in greater reverence than his wife, laying careful lips over her knuckles when they were alone.

* * *

32. Farewells

She was sad to see all of the children go for the summer, but she certainly wasn't sad to know that she and Christopher would have the upstairs bedrooms _all to themselves_; he must have thought the same, waving to Cat with one hand and smiling vaguely at her from the side.

* * *

33. World

He had often wondered what it would be like if Millie had stayed in Series Ten, however the idea had been so dull and empty that he immediately pushed it away, telling Roger to not put his elbows on the table for the fifth time that night.

* * *

34. Formal

Christopher could not say in good conscience that he did not like formal events, especially since he did so love the opportunity to play dress-up with his family, even if Millie thought he was being ridiculous in his discreet manner.

* * *

35. Fever

Millie knew that Christopher could be incredibly irritable when he was ill, but she figured that the gods had deserved whatever they got; Christopher informed her through a stuffy nose and watery eyes that what they had gotten was the flu.

* * *

36. Laugh

Not many people had ever heard Christopher laugh openly, but he planned to keep it that way, especially since Millie had informed him that he had a tendency to snort and sigh if he was really into it.

* * *

37. Lies

It was fortunate that Christopher was not in the habit of lying, because Millie suspected that he would be quite good at it, at least if the way he improvised had anything to say about it.

* * *

38. Forever

Christopher had laughed when his father had thought it appropriate to mention that their family plot in the cemetery had plenty of room for all of them, mostly because he believed that he and Millie would probably be a couple of old birds like Gabriel was, but also because he couldn't imagine what life would be like without any single person in Chrestomanci Castle.

* * *

39. Overwhelmed

Between the newly arrived Janet, an obnoxious group of hedge wizards, and Cat's continual failure to display magic, Christopher wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make it through the week, but fortunately, Millie arrived in time with a newly embroidered cravat and a cranberry scone.

* * *

40. Whisper

The onlookers at their wedding had assumed that when Christopher bent to say something in Millie's ear, it had been something terribly romantic, but Millie knew better and only snorted at Christopher for complimenting himself on the coordinating silk ties on the groomsmen and dresses of the bridesmaids.

* * *

41. Wait

He had made her sit in the office where she had been running over the household bills, until at last, in a flash of pink and orange, Christopher came sauntering into the room in his dressing gown that was more exorbitant than usual; he had immediately been offended when she laughed, loud, long, and hard.

* * *

42. Talk

They never needed to tell each other about how they felt; it was just always known.

* * *

43. Search

"That insufferable cad, if he's gone and gotten himself in trouble, then he'll be in more of it when he gets home," she muttered to her finding spells, desperately trying to find out why he let no one know that he was leaving.

* * *

44. Hope

"I live my life knowing that tomorrow will be clean of today's messes, and that tomorrow might not have any messes at all," he said, struggling to take care of all his business before the holidays.

* * *

45. Eclipse

She would never be quite as talented or renowned as Christopher, but Christopher never let her dwell on it for too long, saying that he would be a rather useless enchanter if she wasn't around to keep him in line.

* * *

46. Gravity

He had to admit it: he was getting too old to be a proper Chrestomanci, and Millie was worrying more and more than he might not always get back up from one of his "work-related" injuries.

* * *

47. Highway

Of all the times that he left to go to other worlds, the one that she remembers best is the day in her fortieth year that he did not come back.

* * *

48. Unknown

"We can't expect everything to turn out the way that we want it to," said Millie, looking at Irene and Jason from across the tiled floor of their home, "but for people like ourselves, half the fun is jumping over the rock only to find we've gone off the cliff."

* * *

49. Lock

"Oh, of course they still lock their bedroom door," said Mrs. Bessemer to a questioning Eric, but the young nine-lifer quickly regretted his line of thought when Mrs. Bessemer added, "after all, they're both still quite young."

* * *

50. Breathe

They had learned over the years to breathe in time with one another, sometimes just listening to make sure they were always together.

* * *

A/N: Comment and critique would be appreciated, so long as it's not on whether a sentence was run-on or not. Some of them _had_ to be run-on.


End file.
